Re: Catalina killed my Mac mini?

Downloaded Catalina on my new 2018 Mac mini. Started the install, it went to and stayed on a black screen with white Apple logo and progress bar. The bar expanded until it was full all the way across. The mini sat at this screen for about 2.5 hours. I was wondering why it was taking a long time so I touched the mini and quickly pulled my hand away! It was scorching hot! I decided to pull the plug and let it cool down. Now that the mini has cooled off, it won’t turn on! What do I do? I tried contacting developer support, but they’re probably all at WWDC. *sigh* Thankfully this isn’t my only Mac. I don’t know what I would have done if it was.

I had the same issue on my 2018 MacBook Pro 15”. Yesterday I took it into the apple store and now they have to replace the logic board. They can’t restore the BootOS firmware and get it running again. Insane.

I tried updating my Mac mini 2018 which is dedicated just as a development machine and the same thing happened. Completely dead. Took it to the apple store and they said they had never seen this, as it was a software update it should have done this at all, and sounded like a bad batch.

It was less than a month old So I got a replacement and like an idiot, I tried this again with my new Mac mini. I am now stuck watching this load bar after 2 hours and realise it has to be a bug. Whilst it is currently still on, I am certain if I turn this off, this mac too will never boot again.

Are you in the states? I’m in the UK and despite the Apple care cover, there are certain consumer laws here, such as 28 days to refund or return a product (regardless of it working or not). After this It falls into warrantee where they are expected to fix it. More so, UK law states a portable device with a battery has to work for 3 years. They will say they will charge for portable device repairs if it doesn’t have Apple care, but if you look the law states they have to fix it. And they will, you just have to argue in store. They even state these consumer rights in the small print of their own website. When you show a store manager this, they cannot dispute.

Same issue with my mac mini. I was able to put it into DFU mode (unplug power, connect thunderbolt to another mac, hold power button and plug back in) and then see the iBridge in apple configurator but configurator fails upon restoring the firmware. Tried about 30 times... APPLE PLEASE PUT 10.15 FIRMWARE INTO CONFIGURATOR SERVERS!!!! Heading to the genius bar, they wont read this or do anything... 2 hour drive.

Good thinking there with the DFU mode - but even if the 10.15 firmware was in configurator - I wouldn't have been able to do the same thing - no other thunderbolt 3 mac here. Driving 2 hours to the Genius Bar - that *****, sorry. It was a 40 min drive for me (when traffic is good), and I thought that was a pain in the rear.

Got my mini back two days ago. They apparently replaced the PSU to no avail, then replaced the logic board. This work was done all at the local Apple Store. Hopefully this info is getting back to the right people at Apple HQ so that they can do something about it. I'm definitely not installing Catalina for a while, lol.

Just want to share my Catalina beta 2 install experince on Mac mini 2018. I created a new "Beta" volume, install Mojeve. then install the Caralina profile. Then I proceed to install Catalina on "Beta" volume. Install is okay and I can run Catalina, new xCode etc. Then I choose to reboot back to my Mojave on "Macintosh HD" volume. Mac reboots but after the Apple logo is just blank screen. Tried hard reset and its the same. Did the Catalina install on "Beta" volume destroys the Mojava on"Macintosh HD" volume? No. I use Logitech bluetooth mouse and not Apple mouse. Turns out the blank screen is just waiting for the mouse to connect. Appears that the previous mouse setup was erased once you booted to anothre volume and back. Plug in a USB mouse and the Mac boots okay.

I have a Late 2012 Mac Mini. Before 10.15.3 I had incomplete shutdown problems. When I installed 10.15.3, the installation could not finish as "the installar was unavailable". I was upgrading at home with my internet. I have a typical home connection, but not gigabit.

Upon advice from a coworker, I solved all installation problems by taking my Mac Mini to work. I am the permits officer for an internet provider. We hooked it up to the internet with an ethernet cable, not WiFi. Yes, gigabit. This guaranteed a fast and uninterrupted data flow. That simple.

It is not an "old machine" issue. My old machine is running great. A new Mac Mini will suffer the same fate. I hope this helps.

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